The Bride (Gelin)

Written and directed by Lütfi Ömer Akad, this 1973 drama opens the filmmaker's trilogy on migration from rural Anatolia to the big city, a cycle continued by Düğün (1974) and Diyet (1975). It tells of a family that abandons its home in Yozgat hoping that Istanbul will offer them prosperity. The young daughter-in-law Meryem (Hülya Koçyiğit) arrives with her husband Veli (Kerem Yılmazer) and their ailing child, and when money runs short she defies convention by taking a job in a factory, tasting financial independence for the first time. The household's stern patriarch Hacı İlyas (Ali Şen), however, regards a working bride as a disgrace and leans on his son to wipe away the shame. Waiting at the factory gate to kill his wife, Veli instead takes Meryem in his arms, and the couple walks off side by side toward a freer life. The picture collected three prizes at the 5th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival, among them best film, and the Ankara Cinema Association later counted it among the ten finest Turkish productions.